YORK, Maine — Super Bowl trips seemed like an almost annual event for New England Patriots fans. Over the last two decades, the team won six and made it to the championship game nine times.
While this Super Bowl between the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals won't offer many local connections, it's a day one Mainer has been waiting decades for.
Matt Brodsky lives in York and has been a die-hard Bengals fan since he was seven.
“My grandfather and father brought back some Bengals food merchandise from a food convention they were at and I just loved the colors, the logo and then it happened to coincide with Super Bowl XVI," Brodsky added.
He watched his team lose the Super Bowl twice back in the 1980s, but now the Bengals are one victory away from the franchise's first-ever Super Bowl win.
The Bengals have been one of the worst teams in the National Football League for decades, but that didn't stop the loyal support.
“The Cincinnati Bengals are like that sibling that always tells you, you do things wrong or mom and dad loves them more than you," Brodsky said. “It took me [going to] about 12 Bengals games over six years to actually see them win in person.”
The lack of victories is something New England Patriots fans really can't relate to.
“Where Patriots fans expect a Super Bowl. If the Bengals fans, if we beat the Steelers once in a year, that’s a success," he added.
More than 20 years ago, the Brodsky Bengal bunch became a party of two when Matt married his wife Gina. She said she knew her husband was passionate about the team and even let him decorate one room in their house with Bengals logo gear and memorabilia.
“When he is committed to something, he is committed all in. And he’s committed to this team like I’ve never seen anyone commit to anything ever," Gina said.
The jerseys, hats, posters, signs, footballs, and souvenirs now take up most of the family basement. And the bathroom, too.
The Brodsky's watched Bengal's quarterback Joe Burrow win three postseason games in the last few weeks that all came down to the last moment. Besides Matt and Gina rooting for their team, their three kids also cheered on Cincinnati, but they didn't have much of a choice.
“I didn’t really want to say I liked [another team], because it didn’t seem like an option," Lily Brodsky said.
The Bengals fandom makes sense for the kids considering the oldest son Dillion is named after former Bengals running back Corey Dillon. Their youngest son's full name is Athan Matthew Bengal Brodsky.
Yes, it's on his birth certificate.
Dillion's twin sister, Lily, was the lucky sibling to avoid any Cinncinati connection.
The three kids have seen plenty of meltdowns and heartbreaks downstairs in the 'Bengal cave' over the years.
“I think half the posters down there are just covering up holes in the walls he’s put in there," Dillion said.
To test if Matt is, in fact, a die-hard, NEWS CENTER Maine asked if it would be the best day of his life if the Bengals win the Super Bowl.
"With respect to the kids' births, it absolutely would be. I've been a Bengals fan for 20 years before I got married, so they come first," he said.
Matt said that with his wife Gina and all three kids present and listening so you knew he was serious.
Even though the twins liked to poke fun at dad over the years, the Brodsky's are all on the bandwagon this season and if their team wins its first Super Bowl, they can proudly say "how about them Bengals?"